SENTENCING STATEMENTS
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HMA v Charles McAughey and Scott Bannatyne
Sep 15, 2026
Upon sentencing, Lord Arthurson made the following remarks:
"Charles McAughey and Scott Bannatyne, on 4 August 2026 at a preliminary hearing at Glasgow High Court, you each tendered a plea of guilty to separate charges, you Mr McAughey to a charge libelling a contravention of section 28(1) of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, and you Mr Bannatyne to a charge libelling the contravention of section 4(3)(b) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, as aggravated by a connection with serious organised crime, all while you were the subject of a bail order.
"The agreed factual narrative was read into the court record on the date of your pleas of guilty. I do not propose to rehearse that material. Put short, on 12 March 2025 you were both involved in the transfer of controlled drugs between one vehicle and another. The 4 kilos of cocaine subsequently recovered by officers in respect of that episode has been assessed as having a maximum potential street value of approximately £320,000. The second episode on 11 December 2025 related only to you Mr McAughey. Knowing that a lorry was transporting a substantial quantity of controlled drugs, you arranged to meet the vehicle at an industrial estate in order to assist in the further concealment of the drugs, which were contained in a hide within the lorry trailer. Police in due course recovered 100 kilos of cocaine with a purity range of 61% to 81%, having an assessed maximum potential street value of approximately £8,000,000.
"Mr McAughey, you are now aged 65. You have to date accrued some 8 groups of previous convictions. Only one is relevant and directly analogous to the present case, namely a drug trafficking conviction dated 2017 from the Criminal Court of Marseille, which offence involved driving a lorry with a consignment of 684 kilos of cocaine, which consignment was intended for delivery to Glasgow.
"Mr Bannatyne, you are now aged 29 and have to date accrued a schedule containing only two non-analogous summary-level convictions.
"I have listened carefully to the submissions advanced this morning in mitigation by your respective counsel, and note in particular what has been said by them regarding your personal, family and prior employment circumstances; your acceptance of your criminal responsibility by way of your early pleas of guilty; in your case Mr McAughey your age and health issues; your involvement in two separate incidents; and your limited role as a facilitator in this offending; and in your case Mr Bannatyne, certain character references; and your own limited involvement in the offending libelled against you.
"It is nevertheless plain and indeed in the public interest that only significant custodial disposals can be imposed today in respect of both of you.
"Mr McAughey, you have a directly relevant analogous drug trafficking conviction and have pled guilty to involvement in the importation of a vast amount of class A controlled drugs, albeit on the face of matters at a low level, and all in the context of serious organised crime. On charge four on this indictment I select a notional headline custodial tariff in your case of 8 years, which I now reduce due to the timing and utility of your early plea to a sentence of 6 years imprisonment. This sentence will be backdated to the date of your initial remand into custody in these proceedings, namely 15 December 2025.
"Mr Bannatyne, your record is negligible and your involvement in the drug trafficking libelled in charge 5 related to a far lesser amount of cocaine. Nevertheless, the value thereof was still a considerable one. You will serve a sentence of 3 years imprisonment, reduced due to the timing and utility of your own early plea from a notional headline custodial tariff of 4 years. I attribute 6 months of this notional headline period to the bail aggravation libelled. This sentence will be backdated to the date of your guilty plea and remand into custody by the court, namely 4 August 2026.
"Finally, the Crown having moved for a Serious Crime Prevention Order in respect of you, Mr McAughey, and agreement on the terms of that order now having been reached with your senior counsel, the court duly makes the relevant order for a period of 3 years in the agreed terms more fully referred to in the minute of this hearing."
15 September 2026